Race and Religion in the Educational and Professional Experience of Immigrant Sudanese Muslim Women

• In Event: Gender, Identity, and Race: Examining Black Females' Sense of Belonging in Secondary and Postsecondary Contexts

Abstract

Africans continue to immigrate to the United States voluntarily or involuntarily (Arthur, 2000; Stewart, 1993). Although much has been written about immigrants in the U.S., little literature is available on black immigrants (Rong & Brown, 2002; Arthur, 2000; Dodoo, 1997), and much less on immigrant Muslim women from black Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to use a six-month study of five Sudanese Muslim women who graduated from American colleges and work in the U.S. to explore the intersection of their race and religion in their experiences. The study also tries to answer the questions regarding the impact of these experiences on the participants’ careers, sense of belonging, and their multiple identities (Phinney, 1992) as Black, women, and Muslims as they carve their own space within American educational institutions and their professions, and how they navigate between two worlds: their native culture, traditions, Islamic faith, and the American mainstream culture; and how their educational and career experiences in the U.S. impact their viewpoints.

The study is informed by Black feminist epistemology and its concept of intersectionality as a theoretical framework (Collins, 2000; hooks, 1990, Crenshew, 1993). The Black feminist concept enables me to analyze the interplay of race and religion in the lived experiences of the women in my study (Solórzano & Yasso, 2002, Collins, hooks), to understand and construct meaning from their told stories, to bring these women’s experiences to the center of the discussion, and to provide a counter narrative that is empowering (Collins, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1994). I used narrative inquiry as a method within qualitative research for data collection and analysis (Hatch, 2002; Glesne, 1999; Creswell, 1991). Informal, semi­structured, open-­ended individual interviews, researcher’s journals, and field notes were used for data collection (Creswell, 2007).

Data analysis revealed that, the participants encountered series of discrimination and prejudice due to their race, religion, accented English, and immigrant status. These encounters draw most of them closer to their religion and original cultures. Others experienced a shift in their identity as result of straddling between two cultures that did not complement each other. Racism, gender, religion, in addition to their accented English did intersect at different levels.

These experiences had both negative and positive impacts on their multiple identities as well as on their sense of belonging (Collins, 2000). However, their stories reflected their resiliency and determination which helped them to defy discriminatory acts, stay positive, carve their place in a racially charged milieu, and achieve success socially and professionally. This study aspires to add to the scant research in this area and contribute to the visibility of this minority (Nyang 1999, Abdo, 2007). It can also add to the ongoing discourse on gender, race, and religion, and to efforts that aim at educating about Islam and Muslims to provide a positive climate of tolerance and enhance the diversity and inclusion endeavors.

Author

• Awatif Elnour, The Ohio State University